Charlotte Takes the Plunge with Melanie Shatner... (S6 E3 "The Perfect Present")

Kristin Davis (0:01)

Hi, I'm Kristin Davis, and I want to know, are you a Charlotte?

Welcome back, everybody. This is part two with one of my bestest, oldest friends in the world, Melanie Shatner Gretch. We are recapping The Perfect Present and just talking girlfriend stuff.

All right, let's talk about the episode. The episode is called The Perfect Present, which is interesting. We get into this very interesting phase of naming of the episodes, right? It's like kind of interesting esoteric titles we start getting into. And it is directed by David Frankel, directed both Devil Wears Part of One and Devil Wears Part of Two. Yes. And had previously directed Miami Rhapsody, where Sarah Jessica works with Pat Field, who then she brings. Yeah, it's all connected to David Frankel. And Jenny Bix wrote Jenny Bix, who had breast cancer twice during our show, and was one of my first, you know, close, close friends to go through the whole, the whole situation.

Melanie Shatner (1:02)

Yeah.

Kristin Davis (1:02)

And she's doing great. So it's wonderful.

Melanie Shatner (1:04)

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Kristin Davis (1:05)

And she was, I mean, so strong through the like, wow, because this was back.

Melanie Shatner (1:10)

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Kristin Davis (1:11)

Yeah. And this is when we were doing the Revlon Walk, which is where they were studying tamoxifen. They were funding the research for tamoxifen. I know.

Melanie Shatner (1:19)

I'm not incredible.

Kristin Davis (1:20)

Isn't it?

Melanie Shatner (1:21)

Yeah. I support Susan G. Komen. I'm on their board. And they are responsible for like, I wish that I had the numbers on me. I never thought we'd talk about that. But like, they're responsible for so much medication. And there's some statistic, like every single person who's had breast cancer has been impacted by the work they've done.

Kristin Davis (1:43)

Wow.

Melanie Shatner (1:43)

Like there's not a person in any country anywhere.

Kristin Davis (1:45)

Wow.

Melanie Shatner (1:46)

Yeah.

Kristin Davis (1:46)

That's amazing. That's wonderful to support them.

Melanie Shatner (1:49)

Yeah.

Kristin Davis (1:49)

Yes. Yes.

Melanie Shatner (1:50)

Yes.

Kristin Davis (1:51)

All right. Here we go. So in this episode, this is when we've got Berger, who's super interesting. It's a great storyline.

SPEAKER_4 (1:58)

Is it?

Melanie Shatner (1:59)

Yes.

Kristin Davis (1:59)

You like it.

Melanie Shatner (2:00)

Loved it.

SPEAKER_4 (2:01)

Tell me.

Melanie Shatner (2:02)

Well, I love, I love. Well, this is like the, like in the beginning, right? Where it's like, but then yet you, in this episode, you really see this guy, something's wrong. Okay.

Kristin Davis (2:15)

That's what I was waiting for.

Melanie Shatner (2:16)

I love the.

Kristin Davis (2:17)

I mean, I know, right? So this is when he double flips off his ex-girlfriend on the answering machine, which is really interesting. And there really are these little tells almost in every episode of Burger where you're like something's off. But also he's got this writer, writerly, you know, repartee with her and right play. And, you know, she has kind of an intellectual match with him, which we haven't really seen.

So I can see what the writers are doing. But also, I mean, also, we know where it's going. Right. But like every single episode, I'm like, oh, look at that.

Melanie Shatner (2:51)

Well, you know, you're so right. Like, if you look at it from like that bird's eye view, there's tells in every, in every one. Yep.

Yep.

Kristin Davis (2:59)

There really are.

Melanie Shatner (3:00)

And then it culminates in the...

Kristin Davis (3:02)

It culminates in the post-it.

Melanie Shatner (3:03)

The post-it, which is like brilliant.

Kristin Davis (3:06)

So brilliant.

Melanie Shatner (3:06)

It's brilliant.

Kristin Davis (3:08)

But the other thing that I love about it is that he also gives us the episode where he tells Miranda that her date just wasn't, he's not just, he's just not that into you, which then spawns a book and a movie and whatnot, because he's kind of a truth teller.

Melanie Shatner (3:22)

Right.

Kristin Davis (3:22)

But he's also like not very worked out in his own stuff.

Melanie Shatner (3:27)

Right.

Kristin Davis (3:27)

So he's insightful, but not maybe about himself.

Melanie Shatner (3:32)

Right.

Kristin Davis (3:32)

And he's also just probably not the best match for Carrie, but I also really like that she's trying.

Melanie Shatner (3:37)

Totally. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Kristin Davis (3:39)

And I don't remember, like at the time, I don't think that I thought objectively about any of it, right? We were just in it, you know? And I was just thought it was great that we got Ron, you know, from Band of Brothers, which is how we originally knew him. And he was so different, obviously. Yeah. But it's interesting. It's hard for me when I'm watching to invest in them, maybe because I know where it's going.